British Jews hide being Jewish in public amid rise in anti-Semitic hate

The bedroom of a 17-year-old boy who was sentenced over an improvised bomb and membership of banned anti-Semitic group National Action in February 2017North West Counter Terrorism Unit

By Paul WrightInternational Business Times

One in three British Jews has considered leaving the UK over the past two years due to anti-Semitism, a new survey has found, with a similar number admitting to hiding that they are Jewish in public. It comes after police figures released last month showed a 45% surge in reported anti-Jewish crime since 2014.

A survey published on Sunday 20 August by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) found just over a fifth of British Jews felt they no longer had a long-term future in the UK, while 32% said they had considered leaving the country altogether in the past two years.

Islamic extremists, the far-right, and the far left were ranked as the top three sources of concern among the 2,000 British Jews polled. Some 75% of those surveyed blamed recent political events for an increased hostility towards Jews – with about 37% saying they had tried to conceal being Jewish in public.

The survey results come despite a separate YouGov poll, commissioned by CAA, showing a decline in anti-Jewish prejudice over the same period among British adults, from 45% in 2015, to 36% in 2017.